County to Spend $285,000 to Study Home Drownings

Using a $285,000 grant from the state, Orange County health officials are launching a project this year to help reduce drownings in swimming pools and spas, the leading cause of accidental death to children under 5 in the county.

Dr. Hildy Meyers said Thursday that the Orange County Health Care Agency will use the state money to study the problem and make recommendations. One result, she said, might be a “model ordinance” on swimming pool and spa safety.

The project will also involve public education, Meyers said. “I’d like to see a high level of public awareness about the problem and how to prevent it,” she said. “I’d also like to see pool owners made very aware of the danger. Finally, and very optimistically, I’d to see a good ordinance passed.”

Some county cities already have varying forms of pool safety ordinances, Meyers noted. But she said most of the ordinances are to prevent people from outside a home from getting into a pool or spa area. She said such ordinances do not adequately protect children who live in a home that has a pool or spa.

Meyers, an epidemiologist, is the consultant for the drowning prevention project. She said the total state grant will be given to the county in yearly increments over the next three years, and the study and education project will also extend for three years.

“The total amount we can get (over the three years) will be $285,000,” she said.

According to the county Health Care Agency, 10 children under the age of 5 died last year in pool or spa drownings in the county. Another 43 children under 5 required emergency medical care after a near-drowning in a pool or spa in the county.

Orange County coroner’s statistics show 13 drowning deaths of children ages 11 months to 6 years in 1989, five such deaths in 1988, nine in 1987 and 17 in 1986.

Meyers said the Health Care Agency has frequently had trouble in getting detailed information about drownings or near-drownings in the county.

She said one goal of the three-year project is “to improve the surveillance we’re doing, to get better information and data and to investigate actual cases.”

“Drowning has been the leading cause of injury deaths for children under the age of 5 in Orange County since the early 1980s,” Meyers said. “No one thing is going to prevent every drowning, but we hope this (state-funded project) sees some success in preventing drownings or near-drownings.”